ASUS A8V Deluxe Overclocking Guide -- Discussion

[KillrBuckeye]

Thanks

I guess I'll have to resort to. . .to. . .to Google!

Did you see the A8N-SLI sticky in this forum?

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=364790
While most of the discussion focuses on the A8N-SLI Deluxe board, it is very similar to the A8N-SLI plain and Premium versions.

Another good resource is this relatively new forum devoted to the A8N line of Asus motherboards:
http://asustech.15.forumer.com/index.php?http://asustech.15.forumer.com/

 

[Spoudazo]

Thankyou

My Zalman cooler and Arctic Silver 5 is on the way, as it's time for me to OC my first CPU (3800x2)

 

[zoomtm]

I have a problem that maybe some of you guys can help me with:

When I OC anything higher than 2.35GHz my RAID 0 config slows down to 56MB per sec, but at 2.34GHz its at 100MB per sec. Any solutions?

Specs:

Chenming ATX-602 Case

Skyhawk 470 Watt Modular PSU

ASUS A8V Motherboard

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 1.8GHz Venice 939 @ 2.34GHz - Arctic Freezer Cooling

Corsair TWINX XMS 512*2 DDR400 CAS 2 @ DDR520

2x Hitachi Deskstar 80GB 7200RPM SATA2 in Raid 0

Maxtor DiamondMax 9 Plus 80GB 7200RPM SATA - On a Maxtor PCI Controller

ATi Radeon X800XTPE 256MB 256Bit VIVO @ 560/1120.5 - Zalman Cooling

Samsung SH-R522C/BEBN CD-RW Burner

NEC-3500a DVD-RW Burner

 

[Velocity]

I have a problem that maybe some of you guys can help me with:

When I OC anything higher than 2.35GHz my RAID 0 config slows down to 56MB per sec, but at 2.34GHz its at 100MB per sec. Any solutions?

Specs:

Chenming ATX-602 Case

Skyhawk 470 Watt Modular PSU

ASUS A8V Motherboard

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 1.8GHz Venice 939 @ 2.34GHz - Arctic Freezer Cooling

Corsair TWINX XMS 512*2 DDR400 CAS 2 @ DDR520

2x Hitachi Deskstar 80GB 7200RPM SATA2 in Raid 0

Maxtor DiamondMax 9 Plus 80GB 7200RPM SATA - On a Maxtor PCI Controller

ATi Radeon X800XTPE 256MB 256Bit VIVO @ 560/1120.5 - Zalman Cooling

Samsung SH-R522C/BEBN CD-RW Burner

NEC-3500a DVD-RW Burner

Dont use the via raid option. Use the onboard chip or a pci card

 

[zoomtm]

I have the A8V not the Deluxe version....so I only have the via chip as the option. The PCI card I have doesnt support RAID. Wouldnt the PCI card be slower anyways?

 

[Velocity]

pci might be a little slow but you'll be able to overclock with no problem and be able to have your raid at the same time. sounds better to me.

 

[zoomtm]

Hmm...faster cpu or faster HD access...decisions, decisions, decisions...

 

[tuskenraider]

Same problem here. What I found out was that past a certain HTT speed, 263mhz on my board, my IDE and SATA hard drive performance dropped about 15% for sustained read/writes and almost in half for my burst speed in benchmarks. Similar to the poster above's speed, I'm at 2.36ghz. RAID0, on either controller, or single drive on either and a PATA drive, this will happen. This was tested with 5 different drives using HDTach and ATTO benchmarks. I've tried 10 different BIOS', and every Hypertransport Link speed possible and can't get rid of the problem. I'm giving up about 200mhz in OC'ing because of this and while this board isn't getting the attention it used to, just thought people should be aware there's more than one person with this problem.

 

[Sub_Zero]

I don't know if I like this board or not... It's not working. I have or I did have an OS on it. I am getting this message
"Scan Devices. Please wait.... Press
< Tab > Key into User Window!"

And so I wait and wait noting... I press tab and noting.. I could not get into the BIOS so I pulled the battory and finely got into it. It says that my HDD is there but it wont boot..

It all worked yesterday at a firends house when I built it and installed the OS.

Please reply even if its just a link where I can find the info.. Ill go surf the site and see if I missed somthing..

Thanks
Rob

 

[Darkrom]

Awesome guide.

Im running my ram at 2:1 400mhz 2.5-3-3-6-2T 1GB x 4 Corsair XMS3200 TWINX (4gb -- need the ram for linux/x64/x32 quadboot).


I have a FX-57 and I'm tryin gto figgure out the optimal multiplier and FSB. I am running HT of 1000. I am using artic silver 2 / Zalman setup rather than a stock. So I want to see how far I can push my FX-57 on air. But I need it to stay stable for gaming, most of all.. MMO's/Online FPS's in particular

Whats a good multiplier/FSB speed to start with? Right now It's 200 stock and 14 on the multiplier i believe (i think) for the default FX-57. Also, my mem iis stable with the 2:1 400Mhz settings but isnt 1:1 better? And if its better why is it 200Mhz? Less than 400? That confuses me. So I need a :

Multiplier/FSB to start with and if I should keep my memory timing and 1:2 400mhz the same, or change it to 1:1 200Mhz. And I assume 1000 HT should stay there. i read the whole guide. Just no listing of a FX-57 there.. So I would be honored to get some advice.

thanks!

 

[KillrBuckeye]

Hi Darkrom. The advantage you have with your FX-57 is that the higher multipliers are unlocked. This gives you the ability to run your CPU as fast as it will go without worrying about your memory becoming unstable. No one can tell you what your CPU will be able to handle, so you're going to have to test it yourself. To find the limit of your CPU, it's best to take memory out of the equation. You can do this by choosing a low memory divider such as [1:1 DDR200]. Then you can increase the FSB (HTT) and multiplier to raise the CPU speed. I suggest that you start with 100 MHz increases, and test each setting use Prime95.

To answer your question about the memory speed setting, it's just the naming convention that is confusing you. On the A8V Deluxe, the [2:1 DDR400] setting runs the memory at the same speed as the FSB (200 MHz at stock). This is what people call "1:1" on these forums. If you were to choose the [1:1 DDR200] setting, it would run your memory at half of the speed of the FSB (100 MHz at stock).

 

[DDMan]

Maybe someone can help me. I just recently picked up an ASUS A8V Deluxe and Opteron 170 to compliment my X850Pro and 3gb of memory. I call this my "Last ditch effort on dead technology" And well, its pretty damn fast for "dead"

Now, here are my problems...


1. I have PC3200 memory, rated to 200mhz. When pushing the HTT bus to over 250mhz (260), I cannot use the 5:3 memory divider (as that puts it over 208mhz). I tried to use the 3:2 memory divider with NO success (CPUZ says I am still on the 5:3 divider @208mhz). When I try to go even lower, to the 4:3, my system becomes VERY unstable, despite the ram now running at 166mhz. Most programs crash almost immediately, and Prime95 dies after about 5-10 sec. Any tips as to how to get this fixed so I can use the 3:2 divider?

2. Stock VCore for my Opteron 170 is 1.3-1.4v. Whenever I run the voltage/CPU Multiplier at the "Auto" setting, my Vcore jumps to 1.61, which also increases my thermal heat output a ton. I don't know why it's doing this, but I haven't tried to clear the CMOS to see if that fixes it. For now I just manually set the voltage to 1.35.

3. Voltage readings from ASUS Probe2 are not the same as those coming from CPUz, and also significantly lower than those in the BIOS. At a VCore of 1.35v BIOS readings show 1.34, Motherboard Monitor/CPUz show 1.34-1.36, and ASUS Probe2 show 1.31-1.27.


Just so everyone knows, here are my system specs:

ASUS A8V Deluxe (Rev 2.0 - Bios 1017)
Opteron 170 (CCBBE 0615EPMW Stepping)
Thermalright XP-120 CPU Cooler (with Skythe 800RPM fan)
2x Ultra 1gb PC3200 memory
2x Corsair Value Select PC3200
Ati X850 Pro @ 540/590 mhz
Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic
2x Seagate 80gb SATA 7200.9 Drives in Raid 1 (on VIA RAID Controller)
1x Maxtor 300gb IDE Drive
1x NEC 3550A DVD Burner
1x Optorite (NEC) 7170A Burner
Thermaltake Xaser 480w PSU

Also, Cool-n-quiet is off, and the system runs beautifully at stock speeds. Currently, it is running at HTT-250x10 = 2500mhz CPU, 5:3 memory divider = 208mhz, and HTT bus x3 = 750mhz. It runs at 34 idle and 48 load. I've only ran Prime95 for an hour or two at these settings, but it seems pretty solid.

Thanks to everyone in advance for the help!!!

 

[tuskenraider]

Best thing with this board is to set everything as manually as you can. BIOS' are inconsistant at best.

1. With the 1017 BIOS, the 5:3 memory divider is actually like a 9/10th's(you start off around 180mhz mem bus) divider and the 3:2 divider is what actually starts you off at 166mhz. 4:3 is completely screwed up and I can't even remember what it gives you. If you can actually boot at a given divider, just check CPU-Z for actaul FSB speed. If you want the last "correct" BIOS for this board, get the 1009 version. Even though Asus says you need 1017 to support your processor, 1009 should work, as my Opty 148 supposedly needed the 1017 BIOS as well, but works just fine with 1009 and is correctly recognized. Maybe a dual core will change that, but I doubt it.

2. Just set it manually.

3. Always trust the BIOS over a software program.

Finally, no reason you can't set your HTT multi to 4 for a perfect 1000mhz. At 261 HHT, I'm at 1040mhz with no issues. Running over 262 HTT will cause V-Link(this is not BIOS adjustable/lockable) bus issues and your whole IDE/SATA bus performance goes down the toilet, so don't go over that. Good luck.

 

[DDMan]

Hmm, well thats interesting.

1. Both the 3:2 and 5:3 ratios give the same RAM frequency...

2. Alrighty, sounds good to me.

3. Same...sounds good.

I did run it at an HTT x4 = 1000, I am just trying to go higher than 250, and most places I have read said don't take it over 1000. As for the IDE/SATA problem....I planed on taking this processor to its upper limits (2.7-3ghz). Are you telling me I'm not going to be able to? Thats why I want to use the 3:2 memory divider (properly), and drop the HTT multi to 3x.

 

[KillrBuckeye]

Hmm, well thats interesting.

1. Both the 3:2 and 5:3 ratios give the same RAM frequency...

2. Alrighty, sounds good to me.

3. Same...sounds good.

I did run it at an HTT x4 = 1000, I am just trying to go higher than 250, and most places I have read said don't take it over 1000. As for the IDE/SATA problem....I planed on taking this processor to its upper limits (2.7-3ghz). Are you telling me I'm not going to be able to? Thats why I want to use the 3:2 memory divider (properly), and drop the HTT multi to 3x.

Sorry man, but you're probably out of luck. See this thread I created a long time ago when my main rig was using the A8V Deluxe:
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=408517&highlight=attention+a8v+deluxe+owners

Now I've since tried different RAM in the board, and the behavior is similar to what you describe (not necessarily unstable, but definitely not running at the speed it should). If you're running a Venice CPU or earlier, you could try flashing to the old BIOS 1009, as memory dividers worked fine for me with this BIOS.

PS: Super Nade, given that there are still people using this board, do you think it might be a good idea to mention this issue in your guide somewhere (assuming you have the time to update it)? A simple link to the above thread might be sufficient.

 

[DDMan]

Sorry man, but you're probably out of luck. See this thread I created a long time ago when my main rig was using the A8V Deluxe:
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=408517&highlight=attention+a8v+deluxe+owners

Now I've since tried different RAM in the board, and the behavior is similar to what you describe (not necessarily unstable, but definitely not running at the speed it should). If you're running a Venice CPU or earlier, you could try flashing to the old BIOS 1009, as memory dividers worked fine for me with this BIOS.

PS: Super Nade, given that there are still people using this board, do you think it might be a good idea to mention this issue in your guide somewhere (assuming you have the time to update it)? A simple link to the above thread might be sufficient.

Wow...yuck. This thing is amazing at 250mhz...and I want it faster!!!

Well, I have a Toledo/Denmark core Opteron (bought last month).... 9nm process. What would happen if I TRIED the older bios? Would I be able to flash it back to 1017? Woudl the computer even boot?

 

[tuskenraider]

1. Both the 3:2 and 5:3 ratios give the same RAM frequency...

Asus gives a little something a little different for everyone I guess........

What would happen if I TRIED the older bios? Would I be able to flash it back to 1017? Woudl the computer even boot?

You might get a CPU error and it won't boot. Just have a copy of each BIOS available on floppy and flash it back to 1017 if it doesn't work out for you.

I planed on taking this processor to its upper limits (2.7-3ghz). Are you telling me I'm not going to be able to?

Possibly, if you don't have an 11 or higher multi with your CPU. It was the exact reason I bought an Opty 148, instead of a 146. Read post #248 of this thread about what I've experienced. There are others here that experienced similar issues.

 

[DDMan]

You might get a CPU error and it won't boot. Just have a copy of each BIOS available on floppy and flash it back to 1017 if it doesn't work out for you.

Ok, as long as it will boot into the bios and not crash. Might be worth a shot (abeit it probly wont work since I have such a new CPU)

Possibly, if you don't have an 11 or higher multi with your CPU. It was the exact reason I bought an Opty 148, instead of a 146. Read post #248 of this thread about what I've experienced. There are others here that experienced similar issues.

Grrrr...Well from what I am reading, it seems the 5:3 divider doesnt work at all. Since I am running 4 sticks of memory, it defaults to 333 (which is why I thought the 5:3 was working correctly). So basically...3:2 works fine. Now I just wonder why 4:3 doesnt work! Maybe I will try 1:1 to see if it will work then...

This really frustrates me. Everyone said this was such a good board . I specifically got this board because my K8V has been spectacular. Now I wished I had just gone with a PCIe board, sold my X850, and gotten the same (or better) card but in PCIe form. I may call ASUS to see what they have to say.

 

[tuskenraider]

This really frustrates me. Everyone said this was such a good board . I specifically got this board because my K8V has been spectacular.

Once you understand the BIOS issues with memory and don't do high OC, it's great. Otherwise........

Now I wished I had just gone with a PCIe board, sold my X850, and gotten the same (or better) card but in PCIe form. I may call ASUS to see what they have to say.

I was thisclose so times to doing the same thing. At least you can benefit from all the time and headaches I and others had trying to figure out all the limitations of this board. And good luck with that call to Asus, they've never been responsive to the BIOS issues and certainly won't now with a dead end board. All I can say is figure out your dividers if you can't use 1009 and stay <=260HTT and you'll be good.

 

[DDMan]

Yup. Thanks for the support, and maybe next time I will do a teensy tiny bit more research (or buy a motherboard and processor which were released around the same time...)

Luckily this was just a hold-over board until I could go Core2 Duo or AMD releases their new chips. In about a year or two I will do a full upgrade (replace EVERYTHING), and go to Vista ***rolls eyes***

EDIT: Good news is I just tested the 2:1 RAM divder, and it works! 255mhz HTT = 127mhz RAM. No, DEFINATELY not optimal, but at least now I can test where my computer's processor can go...and work with the ram and the HTT Multiplier. I most definately want to see what my computer CAN do (in all aspects.... RAM, HTT, CPU, and the HD slowdown issues), then try to get the best combination of them all.